Mike Galgon, co-founder of aQuantive and Pioneer Square Labs, moves from board member of leading global impact investing organization to Chief Executive Officer
July 31, 2024 – Seattle, WA – Global Partnerships (GP), a leading nonprofit impact-first fund manager dedicated to expanding opportunity for people living in poverty, welcomes Mike Galgon into the CEO role. Since GP’s founding in 1994 and the launch of its first fund in 2005, GP and its affiliated funds have invested in sustainable solutions that empower people living on less than $5.50 per day to earn a living and improve their lives. From offices in Seattle, Bogota, Colombia, and Nairobi, Kenya, GP and its affiliated funds have deployed over $770 million in impact investments to nearly 200 social enterprise partners, impacting over 34 million lives in 33 countries across Latin America, the Caribbean, and sub-Saharan Africa.
Prior to taking the CEO post at Global Partnerships, Mike was a member of the GP board of directors for more than twenty years. And for more than twenty-five years, Mike has been an entrepreneur, investor, and impact investor. In 1997, he co-founded aQuantive, a publicly traded family of leading digital marketing companies, including Avenue A, Atlas, and DRIVEpm. After the sale of aQuantive to Microsoft in 2007, Mike served as its Chief Advertising Strategist until 2009. Upon leaving Microsoft, he worked as board member and investor to numerous startups and, in 2015, he co-founded Pioneer Square Labs, a Seattle-based startup studio and venture fund, where he served as Managing Director, and later as Venture Partner. During his tenure, Pioneer Square Labs launched more than thirty venture-backed companies. Along the way, Mike served on a variety of non-profit boards, including The Bush School, The Thacher School, and Summit Public Schools. Prior to founding aQuantive, Mike served with Volunteers In Service To America (VISTA) in inner-city Boston, and as a diving officer in the U.S. Navy. Mike holds an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Duke University.
“I am honored to move from longtime Global Partnerships board member to the role of CEO. My nearly 20-year experience as a board member has reinforced to me the power of impact investing – and its ability to improve lives. Businesses are powerful engines for innovation and scalability; they only rarely, however, serve very poor and vulnerable people as their customers. They transform lives and communities when they do. I am looking forward, through GP’s extensive network, to supporting the most local of in-country entrepreneurs. I am also excited to work with individual investors and institutions to help them prioritize poverty alleviation, inclusive access to basic services, women’s economic empowerment, and climate adaptation and resilience through innovative financial solutions,” said Mike Galgon.
Adds Galgon: “The world is a complicated place. Poverty is multi-dimensional. Our work is built around a growing number of opportunity areas including economic livelihoods, education, energy, health, housing, water, sanitation, and food. We’ve funded businesses that provide sanitation in urban slums, solar energy to off-grid families, support for schools in low-income areas, and financing for women microentrepreneurs in countries around the world. Our work at Global Partnerships, this year celebrating its 30th anniversary, will extend our impact to new investors and local in-country clients. The spirit of connecting innovative finance with the basics of business-building entrepreneurialism will mark the organization’s next 30 years.”
“Global Partnerships is operating at the most grassroots level. The focus on helping small business entrepreneurs – a vast majority of whom are women – to increase opportunities to feed and support their families and community members in some of the most challenging and impoverished parts of the world, is the work of necessity. I am thrilled that Mike has taken on the CEO role. His experience will bring a new level of innovative thinking to Global Partnerships and the industry,” said Maggie Walker, co-chair of the GP board of directors.
“I have known and worked with Mike for many years in different entrepreneurial and nonprofit environments,” said Tim Porter, Global Partnerships board member and Managing Director at Madrona Venture Group. “His strategic sensibilities and ability to marry an innovator’s mindset with an operational focus on getting things done is unique. Global Partnerships – which has over 90 committed investors, 70 mission-driven major donors, and a full team of experienced and committed professionals – is well positioned to expand its impact with Mike at the helm. As we look to the next 30 years, I am looking forward to drawing more members of the technology community into the Global Partnerships family.”
Impact investing is undertaken by a diverse range of investors, including individuals, institutional investors (such as foundations, pension funds, and endowments), development finance institutions, banks, asset managers, and family offices. “Impact-first” investors are motivated by a desire to create positive social or environmental impact while seeking to preserve capital. GP takes an impact-first approach with its affiliated investment funds.
Contact:
Melissa Lockhart Fortner
Vice President, Investor Relations
mlockhart@globalpartnerships.org
206-456-7835